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Nigel Farage has emerged victorious – but Labour is the real winner Nigel Farage has emerged victorious – but Labour is the real winner
(35 minutes later)
Ukip is 100% united, Nigel Farage helpfully announced on BBC radio this morning. Patrick O’Flynn has resigned as economics spokesman, acknowledging that it was really unhelpful to have described his leader as “snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive”.Ukip is 100% united, Nigel Farage helpfully announced on BBC radio this morning. Patrick O’Flynn has resigned as economics spokesman, acknowledging that it was really unhelpful to have described his leader as “snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive”.
Related: Nigel Farage insists Ukip is 100% united as two top figures quit rolesRelated: Nigel Farage insists Ukip is 100% united as two top figures quit roles
The policy director Suzanne Evans was always going to finish her contract about now, she agrees, since her job was done once the manifesto was written, and well and truly done after she recommended that Farage take a couple of weeks off. Ukip is united in a very literal way: anyone still standing agrees with Nigel.The policy director Suzanne Evans was always going to finish her contract about now, she agrees, since her job was done once the manifesto was written, and well and truly done after she recommended that Farage take a couple of weeks off. Ukip is united in a very literal way: anyone still standing agrees with Nigel.
This is the humane, democratic version of the unity project run by the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. In Kim’s Asian utopia, critics of the great dictator die and then sometimes undie, as in the case of his auntie Kim Kyon-hui who may or may not have had a stroke/been poisoned/not be dead at all. So O’Flynn and Evans may yet re-emerge in the sunlight of Farage’s favour. This is the humane, democratic version of the unity project run by the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. In Kim’s Asian utopia, critics of the great dictator die and then sometimes undie, as in the case of his auntie Kim Kyong-hui who may or may not have had a stroke/been poisoned/not be dead at all. So O’Flynn and Evans may yet re-emerge in the sunlight of Farage’s favour.
The purpose of the strategy is to keep the world guessing. No one is sure whether Kim Jong-un really is a psychopath, or just pretending to be one, but if he has nuclear capacity then it’s as well to tread carefully. As with Kim, so with Farage. No one will be suggesting any time soon that he’d be better for a short break in Ibiza. And if this seems overegging the case, listen back to the bit of the BBC interview (about 8.15am) when he refused even to recognise the undoubted truth that Suzanne Evans was a potential leader. As the party’s founder, Alan Sked, and another Farage predecessor, Michael Holmes and former Ukip MEP Robert Kilroy-Silkwould confirm, there are no rivals in Farageland.The purpose of the strategy is to keep the world guessing. No one is sure whether Kim Jong-un really is a psychopath, or just pretending to be one, but if he has nuclear capacity then it’s as well to tread carefully. As with Kim, so with Farage. No one will be suggesting any time soon that he’d be better for a short break in Ibiza. And if this seems overegging the case, listen back to the bit of the BBC interview (about 8.15am) when he refused even to recognise the undoubted truth that Suzanne Evans was a potential leader. As the party’s founder, Alan Sked, and another Farage predecessor, Michael Holmes and former Ukip MEP Robert Kilroy-Silkwould confirm, there are no rivals in Farageland.
Only the single undefeated Ukip MP, Douglas Carswell, remains afloat and dissenting – even, in a way, victorious. He triumphed in the head-on confrontation with Farage over taking a handout from the state (to which the party was perfectly entitled, but which Carswell thought would erode the party’s claim to be different) and despite having delivered the most complete non-endorsement of Farage’s leadership at the weekend, his status as an MP should be an amulet against lethal attack. On his blog yesterday he pushed on with his project to map out a way of building Ukip into the radical challenger to Labour that he wants it to be. But there is no one left to amplify his ideas.Only the single undefeated Ukip MP, Douglas Carswell, remains afloat and dissenting – even, in a way, victorious. He triumphed in the head-on confrontation with Farage over taking a handout from the state (to which the party was perfectly entitled, but which Carswell thought would erode the party’s claim to be different) and despite having delivered the most complete non-endorsement of Farage’s leadership at the weekend, his status as an MP should be an amulet against lethal attack. On his blog yesterday he pushed on with his project to map out a way of building Ukip into the radical challenger to Labour that he wants it to be. But there is no one left to amplify his ideas.
Instead, Farage looks set to recruit Mark Reckless as his new policy director, the Tory defector who failed to hold his Rochester and Strood seat on 8 May, an idea that throws up a pleasing range of headlines although possibly less in the way of strategic ideas of interest to voters.Instead, Farage looks set to recruit Mark Reckless as his new policy director, the Tory defector who failed to hold his Rochester and Strood seat on 8 May, an idea that throws up a pleasing range of headlines although possibly less in the way of strategic ideas of interest to voters.
Apart from adding a morose kind of gaiety to life, the failed coup attempt against Farage could yet offer some hope to Labour. It will never be quite clear how damaging Ukip support was to Ed Balls and the scores of other candidates who failed to win seats they should have, but under effective leadership, it could get much worse.Apart from adding a morose kind of gaiety to life, the failed coup attempt against Farage could yet offer some hope to Labour. It will never be quite clear how damaging Ukip support was to Ed Balls and the scores of other candidates who failed to win seats they should have, but under effective leadership, it could get much worse.
Instead, the Faragiste vision for his party promises more of the same. Ukip will go on being what it has been since its first breakthrough in the 2009 Euro elections, the voice of the angry, the shouty, the misogynist and the bigoted. Not for Ukip the makeover that Marine Le Pen has wrought on the Front National in France that could pitch her into the final round of the next French presidential contest. Ukip looks doomed to go on being the party of the outsider, unwilling or unable to make the transition to finding an effective way of representing the people whose support it claims. Which is at least good news for Labour. Instead, the Faragiste vision for his party promises more of the same. Ukip will go on being what it has been since its first breakthrough in the 2009 European elections, the voice of the angry, the shouty, the misogynist and the bigoted. Not for Ukip the makeover that Marine Le Pen has wrought on the Front National in France that could pitch her into the final round of the next French presidential contest. Ukip looks doomed to go on being the party of the outsider, unwilling or unable to make the transition to finding an effective way of representing the people whose support it claims. Which is at least good news for Labour.